Original Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Auto Route (2017)

The National Park Service created this geospatial dataset representing the official centerline of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Auto Route as of 2017. It covers a system of roads and highways in 11 states, developed prior to the trail's 2019 congressional extension. The data is derived from layers created by the Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center for a 2009-2010 inventory and assessment.

Use Cases

• Map historic travel corridors based on the described auto route system.
• Analyze road network connectivity across 11 states based on the geographic coverage.
• Visualize the relationship between the auto route and the 4,900-mile historic trail.
• Plan heritage tourism experiences based on the described visitor access function.

Strengths

• Official National Park Service data representing the 2017 state of the route.
• Covers a specific 11-state geographic region (Illinois to Oregon).
• Derived from a structured 2009-2010 inventory and assessment project.

Limitations

• Dataset is deprecated; the description states a more current layer should be used.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Spatial data reflects the pre-2019 trail extent and may not include later extensions.

Provenance

Source

National Park Service, Department of the Interior.

Collection Method

Spatial data created by NPS, derived from layers developed by the Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center.

Time Range

Represents the official auto route as of 2017, based on a 2009-2010 inventory.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-04 00:53:27.250220; freshness should be verified as the data itself is from 2017.

Geography

Covers 11 states along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.